An I.S. machine has a number of identical sections, each of which has a blank station at which a number of gobs of molten glass (one, two, three four, . . . ) are formed into parisons and a blow station at which the parisons are blown into bottles. Each gob of molten glass is received by an individual mold at the blank station and a set of delivery equipment consisting of a scoop, trough, and deflector is associated with each mold for loading a molten gob, from the feeder into the blank or parison mold. The ideal design is to have this equipment form a straight line in the vertical plane from the centerline of the feeder orifice to the centerline of the parison mold cavity. This is to keep the time required for gob loading as consistent as possible for each cycle and to ensure that the gob arrives at the parison mold in its desired condition. The gob distributor which supports a scoop for each gob, determines the alignment and orientation of the scoop.
This invention relates to the support and alignment of the trough and deflector that together will be called the trough assembly.
The prior art trough assembly deviated from this ideal line at the joint between the trough and the deflector. Each trough assembly consisted of a stationary upwardly facing inclined trough which received the gob from the scoop and an adjustable downwardly facing deflector which deflected the gob
The prior art trough assembly deviated from this ideal line at the joint between the trough and the deflector. Each trough assembly consisted of a stationary upwardly facing inclined trough which received the gob from the scoop and an adjustable downwardly facing deflector which deflected the gob which had traveled down the trough into a vertical path to fall into the parison mold cavity. The deflector and trough support was mounted to the side of the machine beam, which extended over all the sections, using brackets so as to maintain a pivot point at the joint between the stationary trough and the adjustable deflector. This would keep the upper end of the deflector in point alignment with the lower end of the trough. The lower end of the deflector has a transverse lug with a vertical bore. This bore fits over a pin that is adjustable about x and y axes to enable adjustment of the position of the lower end portion of the deflector in relation to the associated parison cavity. This method of adjustment allows the lower end of the deflector to move out of line with the trough and causes the upper end of the deflector to pivot and create a "dog leg" at the joint between the trough and the deflector.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,727 there is disclosed a trough assembly for the delivery of a gob of molten glass from a gob distributor to a parison mold cavity in a glassware forming machine comprising an upwardly facing inclined trough which is arranged to receive a gob from a scoop of the gob distributor and a downwardly facing deflector in which the deflector and trough are mounted on a hanger which is supported by a frame member of the machine by a flexible member. In this assembly, adjustment of the position of the deflector may be made without causing misalignment of the deflector and the trough. This flexible suspension trough assembly is designed to be supported by brackets attached to machined pads on the side of the main machine beam. This method is used so as to allow replacement of the existing brackets, used for the prior state of the art trough assembly, so existing machines could be upgraded to the new system. For new machines, this method is expensive to manufacture.